TV

David Spade reveals why Saturday Night Live Gap Girls movie with Chris Farley and Adam Sandler didn't happen

Lorne Michaels suggested the fan-favorite recurring sketch should hit the big screen.

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Published on April 14, 2022 01:32PM EDT

Lay off David Spade if you were starving for the Saturday Night Live Gap Girls to hit the big screen.

The comedian recently revealed that SNL boss Lorne Michaels once suggested the fan-favorite recurring sketch starring Spade, Chris Farley, and Adam Sandler as a trio of superficial Gap employees should be turned into a movie, but there just wasn't enough material to fill a feature-length film.

"We didn't write it," Spade said of the movie that never was during this week's episode of his Fly on the Wall podcast, which he cohosts with fellow SNL alum Dana Carvey.

David Spade, Adam Sandler, and Chris Farley as the Gap Girls on 'SNL' in 1993. Gerry Goodstein/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal/Getty

"It didn't happen, but it was sort of when I thought movies were very easy to come by because I was delusional," he explained to Carvey and guest Bill Hader. "One summer we did Tommy Boy, Lorne had a deal with Paramount, it was sort of easy. And the next summer [Michaels said], 'Why don't you guys do Black Sheep?' and we're like, great. And the next summer, 'Maybe you guys can do Gap Girls movie.'"

So, what happened? According to Spade, there was barely enough of a concept for a full sketch, let alone a full film: "Things [the movie] had against it were me writing it — which was probably the first thing — and then I was running out of sketch ideas that were four minutes long."

Spade admitted that after doing a few versions of the sketch, which aired between 1993 and 1995, he was reaching for comedy inspiration. "I remember we did one about Jeopardy because 'Gapardy' just sounded like a funny name for a sketch, but there was no sketch [material]," he said. "So I go, 'If me, Farley, and Adam are the contestants, it will be funny.'"

Ultimately Spade, whose comedy special Nothing Personal hits Netflix on April 26, knew that writing a Gap Girls movie would be a fool's errand: "I said, 'We can't do a movie, I'm out. That's it. I don't want to wear nails.'"

One of the most memorable chapters of the sketch series featured the Gap Girls sharing a plate of fries, with Farley's character — named Cindy Crawford — being called out for breaking her diet and then lowering her voice to utter the infamous line "Lay off me, I'm starving." During the podcast, Spade revealed that if you look closely, you can see him mouthing the line with Farley because he wanted his costar "to nail it so perfectly" in the scene. "I'm so scared it won't do well and it won't do as good as dress [rehearsal], I am mouthing along," he recalled.

Catch SNL this Saturday at 11:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. PT on NBC, with host and musical guest Lizzo.

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